The Kuumbwa Jazz Center is the kind of space artists dream about playing. It’s classy and intimate, with top-notch sound and lighting. But if your band can’t draw 200 people at $25 a ticket, chances are pretty slim Kuumbwa has booked you. This is changing, however, with a new monthly series called “Club Kuumbwa” which aims to specifically bring in smaller local and indie bands.

When John Craigie wakes up in the middle of the night, he usually doesn’t know where he is. Depending on the lighting—or how full the moon is that evening—it takes the couch-surfing songwriter anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute to figure out whose couch he’s on. And the UCSC grad begins by trying to figure out where he performed earlier that night, or where he was the night before. “I just have to do a little bit of math and a little bit of detective work,” says Craigie, who tours nonstop—he hasn’t paid rent anywhere in seven years.

Sara Watkins grew up playing bluegrass. A gifted fiddler, singer and songwriter, she was just 8 years old when she first put bow to string. For the next 18 years, she played alongside her brother Sean Watkins and 2012 Genius Grant recipient Chris Thile in the Grammy Award-winning progressive bluegrass outfit, Nickel Creek.